Mike Sidney Photography

Mike was our wedding photographer when we got married at Sugarman’s Estate. He was very professional and definitely went over and beyond his call of duty. He wanted to make every shot special for us. He listened to all of our requests and made it happen. We really enjoyed working with him and can’t wait to see his masterpiece when it’s ready. He wanted to do this special shot for us and even stayed a little overtime. He takes pride in his work and I know it will be great! He sent us a teaser picture that we did with sparklers and it was amazing!!! We really can’t wait to see the rest. We definitely would work with him again and recommend him to anyone that wants their special moments captured beautifully.

Mike Sidney was the first choice we made regarding our Maui destination wedding, even before we hired our wedding planners. While searching for wedding planners and locations for our wedding, I kept being drawn to certain photos. These photos shared a unique characteristic that were not only beautiful to the eye, but which evoked wonder and emotions. The use of color, lighting, weather and its elements, how he captured people as well as the beautiful landscape, whether indoor or outdoor amazed me. I learned through these photograph’s watermarks, that the artist behind them was Mike Sidney. As we kept searching for our wedding planner, I would look at photos and would quickly be able to pick out his work and say to my wife, «classic Mike Sidney.» It is hard to express in words exactly what makes his work so great, and is best appreciated by viewing it. Fortunately, once we hired our wedding planners, Mike Sidney was available on our date and we immediately booked him.
In addition to his unique style and vision, his photographs tell a complete story. I received several hundred pictures from Mike and our biggest issue right now (although by no means do I like pictures of myself) is choosing 40 photos for an album; they are ALL good — pre-​ceremony, ceremony, post-​ceremony of guests enjoying themselves (something we as the couple did not attend), and reception.
Not only does he have mastery of the technical and artistic skill of photography, but he is one of the nicest people out there. He has a great personality; he is very hard-​working yet easy-​going, and very personable, a great communicator, very patient, accommodating, and flexible. Our families are pretty… assertive? Maybe a little loud?, however Mike was able to be assertive and direct people when he needed to without anyone really noticing that he had just done so. He always looked like he was having a good time. Our guests kept commenting on how hard he was working and all the running around he was doing to get the shots that he envisioned.
We feel privileged that Mike was able to capture the memories of our special day. If he is available on your big day, BOOK HIM.

I literally cannot say enough about the experience we had with Mike Sidney at our wedding 5 years ago! The pictures he took to commemorate our wedding are truly stunning — and I’ll be honest, I hate being photographed! He made us feel so at ease with the whole process, and really took the time to get the shots that were right for us.
We did a lot of research before our wedding to try to find the right vendors, so we got to meet with Mike before we actually hired him. There was not one ounce of pressure from Mike or his assistant to hire them to do the photos. They just wanted us to have the best experience possible, whether that involved them or not. I’m so grateful that it did!
When we eventually make it back to Hawaii with our kids, we will definitely be scheduling some family photos with Mike again, because truly, his work has been priceless to us!
Mike, you have an amazing gift, and you really are giving your clients something to treasure! Anyone who hires you is so lucky!

Extraordinarily unprofessional behavior. He made me give him my credit card number and sign the contract MONTHS in advance. I sent him specific shots I wanted for our family portrait while we were in discussions — and he said yes to all of them. Come the big day, an HOUR before, they tell me I need to get specific permission from the hotel for inside shots. An HOUR! I was never told it was my responsibility to do that. I told them it wasn’t my fault they didn’t get permission and I wanted to cancel the shot, and he said he was on his way and I had to pay anyway. Eventually, he relented and canceled the contract but we wasted our time and since it was the last day of a very special vacation, we didn’t have time to book another photographer.

After tons of research i really wanted Mike/​Nikki to do my anniversary shoot
Very professional and great services.
Unfortunately our session was not successful but not because of Mike/​Nikki because of weather :(
Mike first sent me the photos but they weren’t exactly as we wanted and Mike right away gave me my money back all the way from HI to DC !!
We will definitly choose him again next year !! We visit Hi every year and any given occasion i will contact Mike anytime !!
Thank YOU Mike and Nikki !!!
Sorry took some time to write my review :)
Mahalo

After tons of research, I hired Mike for a honeymoon photo-​shoot with my new husband back in August 2014. I was extremely impressed with his portfolio, and after speaking with him via email about my husband’s and my photography style and how it worked with his.
Our photo-​shoot was scheduled for the last clear night before the first of two hurricanes were scheduled to hit Maui. We met Mike on his recommended beach and he was already there setting up shots and checking the conditions. He was super relaxed, even with the extreme wind, and kept everything in mind during the session. The wind kept making my newly-​short hair fly in my face, so he continually changed shot positions to make it more optimal. He gave some direction, but not so much that we felt posed. Everything during our shoot was fun, creative and friendly.
Once we got our pictures, I was crazy impressed with the quality. I usually insist on all the digital negatives from my photo-​shoots, but the quality of the 100 shots I got were so amazing, I didn’t need anything more. You can’t teach that creative eye that gets those incredible shots; that’s pure talent.
All in all, our experience with Mike was 100% positive. Yes, he is a little pricier than the competition, but if you want that amazing shot and not the standard seen-​it-​a-​million-​times shot, hire Mike! He’s worth the price!

Mike Sidney is by far one of the best photographers I’ve ever worked with! His photography is absolutely gorgeous and it’s clear that he loves what he does! One of the first vendors I booked for my wedding is Mike Sidney as I wanted to make sure I reserved the best photographer on my wedding day! He has a real talent for capturing the most beautiful shots! Mike and his second photographer were such a pleasure to work with on our wedding day! They took the most beautiful candid shots with unique perspectives and knew just how to position us for our posed shots. Every single one of our photos turned out amazing and we will truly cherish them forever! Mahalo Mike!

I had many problems with Mike Sidney:
1. He was a half an hour late to our wedding, causing us to not only start late, but forcing us to rush pictures afterwards because of the setting sun.
2. He was rude to our guests, in particular my grandmother who was dying of cancer.
3. The quality of pictures were bad. Some of the shots were simply ridiculous.
4. There was zero follow-​up. He sent us the pictures with a release form, which we chose not to sign. It would have been embarrassing to see these awful pictures up on his website.
We don’t have a good selection of pictures from our wedding, which is very sad considering how much we paid for his services.

We got married at the Ritz-​Carlton and chose Mike Sidney as the photographer based on his reviews, pictures on his website, and that he had done pictures for some of the hotel websites. With our wedding package, it included 2 hours which didnt seem like enough so I called Mike’s office to add another hour thinking that would probably be enough time. I wish the office lady would have offered suggestions on how long they recommend for a wedding. For 3 hours we got 200 pictures and it felt like we were being rushed. He took a ton of pictures before the wedding of the groom and groomsmen, but only some of me in 1 pose and none of me with the bridesmaids before the wedding. Mike didn’t give any suggestions or show us any of the shots as he was taking them so we could know if we needed to smile differently or adjust. Many of the pictures have awkward faces that could have easily been fixed if we had been given more direction as we went on. The price was pretty steep for what we ended up with. I was willing to spend the money because the pictures were very important to me but overall, very disappointed. Looking back on the experience as a whole I would not recommend.

In picking our wedding vendors, I was especially picky about a photographer. I’m an amateur photographer and have filmed many weddings, so I had an especially high bar for photography. Mike exceeded all of our expectations and then some. He has a great eye for a photo, takes many creative approaches, is awesome at catching candid moments and was incredible in dealing with our very large wedding party. I’ve worked with many photographers who just seem pushy, but Mike is gifted at making sure everyone is in the right place and looking in the right direction by applying a calm disposition with a good sense of humor. Many of our guests and members of our wedding party commented on how great he was to work with on our wedding day. The deliverables also lived up to expectation. Mike does a very tasteful job at editing and was able to provide us with pictures we will treasure for a lifetime. Also note that Mike «gets it» for the younger generation. He’ll provide you with a link to all of the pictures on his website, a flash drive that contains all of your edited images, a photo montage set to music, and a release form that allows you to use and print the pictures in whatever way you see fit; you’re in no way obligated to go through him for printing, photo books, etc. We highly recommend Mike for your Hawaiian wedding!

Mike just did our wedding and he was great. We won’t get to see the pics for another couple of weeks but we’re sure they’ll be great. You can tell Mike loves what he does and is passionate about the photos he takes. He was very friendly throughout the wedding and made everyone happy to pose for photos with him. Throughout the wedding he was very communicative and let us know what was coming up, that we needed to finish dinner so he could get the sunset shots, that he was going to be doing this or doing that. At the end of our agreed upon time he let us know he was going to head out — we asked him to stay a little longer as we wanted more pics of our performers and he had no problem with that. He never got frustrated and was very patient. Overall a great experience.
We can’t wait to see the pics when he’s done with them!

Getting married on Maui? You need Mike Sidney to photograph your wedding.
Everyone associated with this company is completely competent and extremely helpful. Their office manager helped plan the timeline of our wedding to make sure Mike was able to capture every important photo. He and his assistant were also able to graciously corral some people into photos.
If you have a destination wedding, then many people won’t be there and will want to see your photos. Mike and his team will give you photos that are so gorgeous people will be in awe.
These are fantastic people to work with and you’ll have the most beautiful photos you can imagine.

I can’t say enough good things about Mike Sidney and his über professional staff! He is hands down one of the best photographers on Maui and does an awesome job on any event that I have ever booked with him. He’s a talent and credit to the profession. I’m still floored that his packages are so affordable because you get SOOOO much for your dollar.
Keep up the good work, Mike!

A true kindred spirit!
The first time I met Mike, I knew he was the right one to photograph our wedding. He simply understood what photographic style I liked and took the time to know what was important for us.
During the planning process, he and his staff were very easy to communicate with. They kept us up to speed with the information they needed and made transacting business with them extremely easy.
He has a wide variety of package and a la carte services to choose from that worked within our budget and gave us the products we wanted.
On the day of the wedding, he was VERY easy and fun to work with. Being in the event industry, I will say that you come across a lot of «ego». I was very pleased that he was courteous and friendly to my family and guests. He was patient throughout the formal, church photo session. His style was creative and energetic.
I love looking at my wedding photos. Each time I look at them, I relive the emotion and energy of that day. He captured it in the candid moments. What wasn’t candid, he orchestrated seamlessly. He comes very highly recommended. I only wish I could have had more time to take more and more photos. :) Great job!